Harley Davidson halts production and delivery of first electric model due to faults

American motorcycle icon Harley-Davidson has halted production and delivery of its LiveWire electric motorcycle while it investigates a potential fault in the bike, believed to be related to charging.

Harley-Davidson’s LiveWire will be the company’s first electric motorcycle and is laying the path for up to four more Harley-Davidson electric motorcycles set to be released over the next few years.

Deliveries of the LiveWire had just begun but Harley-Davidson halted delivery on Monday.

Reuters were the first outlet to report on the halt on delivery and production after the company reported that it had detected a “non-standard condition” during testing.

Electrek reached out to Harley-Davidson for comment, who responded with the following statement:

As we lead in the electrification of motorcycles, we have delivered our first LiveWire motorcycles to authorized LiveWire dealers. We recently discovered a non-standard condition during a final quality check.

We stopped production and deliveries, and began additional testing and analysis, which is progressing well.

We are in close contact with our LiveWire dealers and customers and have assured them they can continue to ride LiveWire motorcycles. As usual, we’re keeping high quality as our top priority.

For customers who have taken delivery of LiveWire motorcycles, we’ve assured them they can continue to ride, and we’ve asked them to only use DC fast charging at this time.

Electrek also quoted a “high-ranking Harley-Davidson official” as saying that the halt on production was only “temporary”.

The company is apparently not yet recalling bikes already delivered but has also not offered a timeline as to when production and delivery will resume, offering only that its testing is progressing “well”.

The Harley-Davidson LiveWire is the company’s first attempt to stay relevant in an age when automotive vehicles are frequently turning to all-electric.

Set to be able to accelerate from 0 to 100 in under 3 seconds – sans clutch and gears – the LiveWire is designed to be charged by either a DC fast-charging station – a Level 3 charger, which can charge the battery up to 80% in 40 minutes – or via the slower Level 1 rate charging – which would require an overnight charge and is most commonly found in a riders’ garage using a standard household outlet.

However, all Harley-Davidson dealerships selling the LiveWire will be required to have at least one Level 3 DC fast-charger onsite.

With a range of 235 kilometres in the city and 152 kilometres of combined stop-and-go and highway range, the LiveWire will feature a high-voltage battery composed of lithium-ion cells surrounded by a finned, cast-aluminium housing.

-LiveWire to make its India debut tomorrow, 27 August -Offers a range of 142kms on a single charge -Likely to be launched in India by end of this year Harley Davidson‘s first electric motorcycle, the LiveWire […]